Farm Bureau searching for new manager

Paul Westermeyer

Saturday

Aug 11, 2018 at 10:10 AM

With the sudden, recent departure of Livingston County Farm Bureau Manager Jody Hughes the search is on for a successor. Bunting told the Daily Leader that he and Ryan Ford, the Illinois Farm Bureau manager of the district in which Livingston County lies, hoped to have a new manager appointed by Sept. 17. Hughes announced via Facebook on July 31 that she was taking a new position with the Gibson Area Hospital Foundation and would be resigning her position with the Farm Bureau very shortly. “I am excited to announce I have accepted a new position with the Gibson Area Hospital Foundation,” she wrote. “Working for Farm Bureau has been an awesome career and I have so many great memories and made amazing friendships through the years but life is changing! Thank you to all my colleagues, fellow managers and volunteers I have been blessed to work with in my 7+ years. I will miss all of you but am looking forward to this new opportunity!” While sad to see her go, Bunting, who called Hughes “the face of agriculture” during her tenure in that role in a community so reliant on farming, had nothing but positive words for the job Hughes had done while she served the local Farm Bureau. “We had Jody on as manager since January 2014 and she contacted me about two weeks ago to let me know that she’d found a new job, so while it’s really sad to lose someone so dedicated, we’re still really excited for her and what the future will bring her,” he said. “In her time here, she became the face of agriculture in Livingston County and did a great job forming great working relationships with all the Farm Bureau’s partners across the county.” Bunting said that, in Hughes absence, Vickie Wright, the bureau’s administrative assistant, would be running the office. Bunting noted that he and Ford were seeking for experienced managers from around the state and that the deadline was Friday. Afterwards, he said that he and the bureau’s board of directors would meet with applicants next Wednesday and interview them individually. If no clear candidate for the position emerged, then the bureau would open up the job to trainees, who Bunting said were individuals that were taking lessons from experienced Farm Bureau managers. “In Jody’s absence and while Vicki is working in the office by herself, there’s a week towards the end of August that we’ve got a lot of projects taking place, the farmland assessment going on, so we’re hoping to get a trainee in there at least to help Vicki out,” he said. “If we don’t have any experienced managers interested by (Friday’s) deadline, then we’ll open it up to trainees and maybe some local folks interested in the job. “If it came to local, they’d have to spend some time away in Bloomington in meetings and some time possibly with neighboring Farm Bureau managers.” If all goes according to plan, Bunting said that they’ll have someone hired by Sept. 17. In the meantime, he said that the bureau was in good hands under Wright.

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